Jay's Journal

De: Anonymous, Dr. Beatice Sparks - Edited by

Narrado por: Ramon De Ocampo

Jay was a sweet, bright high school student who cared about his grades and his friends. He had ambitions. He was happy. And he thought he could handle anything.

He was wrong.

When Jay falls in with a crowd that's dabbling in drugs and the occult, he finds himself in over his head and doing things he never thought possible. Fascinated by the dark arts and in love with a dangerous girl, Jay falls deeper and deeper into a life he no longer recognizes...and sees no way out.

©1979 Beatrice Sparks (P)2019 Tantor

Interesting insight

Great insight to the teenage mind at this time. However, it was a letdown versus work this year, but for anybody that is interested in reading Uncovering Alice, I suggest the quick read.

thumbs up

read it as a kid, and again now. still a sad, but a great book!l

The most emotional book I’ve ever heard.

This is one of the most intimate books I’ve ever heard. Wether it’s because of its diary origins or something else I truly don’t know. Regardless is is a tear jerker of a book and truly shows a fair representation of a young mans love, bordering on obsession, for a woman. I truly think all people of all ages should ready and try to truly put themselves into the story of a young man who’s inability to cope with his pain led him to taking his own life.

All the emotion a young man can have and all the tribulations one can go through.

Absolutely heartbreaking and eye opening. Anyone with kids should read/listen to this book. It will change your perspective .

Heartbreaking

You can’t help but feel for Jay all he wanted was to be loved by a girl. But ended up on satans lap

Good, just not super into Diary entries.

I loved the recalling of accounts and the words provided by the mother, truly felt like his storied wasn’t left without an ending.

Good book

was a good book and narrated very well. was a good point of view of a teen messing in the occult

Lost message .

Honestly was really lost what was going on drug,sex,death. I that it would be like go ask Alice it was not.Also something about witch craft was goingi dont know.

The real Jay went to my high school

The real Jay went to my high school (years before me) — those of us who went to high school in a pre-Internet age before 9/11 lived with (I assume) more myths and oral traditions than those today. Jay’s Journal was a frequent topic throughout Jr. High School and High School in the 1990s. Jay’s (Alden was his real name) dad had a medical practice on Main St. a baseball’s toss from the city library where my mom worked.

Stories about Jay ranged from the benign, “I knew someone who knew him” to the more sinister, “I know where Jay did rituals in this house/underground tunnel/etc.” The “Blue Moo” restaurant is the Purple Turtle in real life, still a staple of the small, actual city of Pleasant Grove, Utah.

Alden/“Jay’s” grave is in the PG cemetery, not too far from where my dad’s grave is, so I’m at the cemetery more often during the past few years. “Jay’s” gravestone has a chipped clay picture of him -- whoever did it forgot that when you are looking at a picture, Jay’s right side is our left (the journal mentions his death via gunshot to the right temple). There is also a lengthy poem written by Alden/“Jay” on the gravestone that misspells “Who’s” instead of “Whose” a few times but has a few tender lines, including one about being thirsty — there are often drinks placed at his grave as a result. I've left one many times myself, usually from Hart's or BJ's, two gas station convenience stores kitty-corner to each other just down the road from the PG cemetery. It was said around town that if you placed a drink at his grave, you’d be protected from the evil spirits or “Raul” etc.

I used to ride my bike past Alden’s house (the Barrett’s), but I never knocked on their door to bother them. When I was an office aide at Pleasant Grove High School, I confirmed that there are tunnels under the school, and some are accessible near the assembly hall stage. When I went down there it was your basic dusty, cobwebbed alley with dead mice, minor graffiti, a few chairs, other unknown items, etc. I didn’t have a flashlight so I didn’t go too far, plus it was a dicey place to navigate, devil-worshipping myths or not.

I was shocked years later when I learned how widespread Jay’s Journal was, across the nation and even the world. I thought it was a documented local legend — there were probably six or seven local legends that were given almost as much weight as Jay’s, including a so-called “Swinger” at an elementary school near Alden/“Jay’s/the Barrett’s home. Swinger in the sense of a swingset. Supposedly, a woman, usually dressed in all white (who was also an albino who'd only go out at night), preferred the tall, chain swingsets at nearby Valley View Elementary School. I saw the Swinger multiple times in person — or at least someone in all white swinging at night (who knows if it was a person pretending to be the swinger to continue the power of that myth). As such, that was the strongest local myth, with Jay being second, as far as my perspective is concerned.

I decided to re-read this book (which, when young, was considered contraband, and passed around in secret). The library copies were always missing, and one time someone put a different dust jacket on it and placed it elsewhere so that it would always be available when needed. I wanted to re-read it to prepare for the Rick Emerson book “Unmasked Alice” about the editor/author of Jay’s Journal and Go Ask Alice, Beatrice Sparks, being a deceptive charlatan who used only 20 or so actual journal entries of the 220+ in Jay’s Journal. She had other deceptions that really hurt the Barrett family after they entrusted her with their traumatic story about their son Alden in hopes that it would prevent similar occurrences for other families, but it looks like Jay’s Journal may have created even more problems during the drug and satanic panics of the 80s and 90s. I'll probably read this book one more time in my life, after I read the Rick Emerson book, which looks to be quite detailed.

Dumbest book I’ve ever read

Straight up Mormon propaganda, packed with satanic panic fear mongering and disrespectful stereotypes directed at ancient African spiritual systems. Also, a fake story that is highly disrespectful to the person and the family of the person it’s based on.